Do or Die
by Sephy-Stabbity
Summary: Study hard, do sports, get a scholarship, get out of Lima: Santana had high school all figured out. Then her old crush returns, her plan crumbles, and her friend Quinn starts going gaga for Rachel Berry, of all people! What's a lesbian to do? Brittana.
1. Prologue: It's not an Easy Life

**Prologue: It's not an easy life**

oooooo

Now, I don't want to go all zen on your ass, but life is so _awesome_ when you realize you don't give a fuck.

Not that, in my case, I just decided to wake up one day and not care about what people thought. No, my path to finding the way of "Hakuna Matata" took quite a convoluted route.

But I'm not here to bore you with the story of Santana Lopez found enlightment. Suffice it to say that it was considerably painful, but well worth it in the end. And I still haven't forgiven the people involved in it, but were not talking about them right now.

What we're talking about right now, is how much I hate mornings. Specifically, _Monday_ mornings. If you've spent Saturday drunk off your ass, wasted Sunday on the subsequent hangover, and then stayed up all night until 3 am on Monday to finish the World History assignment due by 9 am, you can understand why I might not be in the greatest of moods.

_God, today is going to suck._

oooooo

"You want the good life, you can have it all! House on the hill baby, you can hav...AAAARGHHHHHHH!"

So I'm walking by myself, JRDN blasting in my ears, a swagger to my hips and a smile on my lips, the whole nine yards. Then all of a sudden the earphones are ripped out of my ears, and my virgin ears are assaulted with the sound of one thousand teenagers walking, rollerblading and driving their way up the road to William McKinley High. Or as I call it, the Highway to Hell.

What? It's high school. Did you expect sunshine and rainbows and shiny pink unicorns?

I scowl, gather up the dangling earphones, and then turn to face my attacker.

"Fuck you, Quinn." I grumble by the way of a greeting, thumping her in the shoulder in retaliation for the assault.

"Good morning to you, Lopez." Quinn Fabray replies, "Yes I had a great weekend, and yes I'm feeling fine today, thank you for asking."

"Maybe if you had said hello instead of jumping me, you friggin' creep."

"Not like you would've heard it, anyways. Not only do you have to listen to that hot 100 r&b shit, but do you also have to sing along at full volume? I'm pretty sure you just broke all glass object within a 5 mile radius. " Quinn smirks as she dodges the punch I throw her way, and instead grips me into a playful headlock.

"Oh, God." I groan. I am so not ready for this so early in the morning.

"Mmm, thats what your mom said last night." is her cocky reply, as she lets me go.

"Really? Because she told me you couldn't get it up." I snark right back, massaging my temples. If she was anyone else, I would've decked them for saying that. But it's Quinn and she's my...worst enemy? Hmm, not quite. Best friend? HELL no. Parnter in crime? Yeah, I guess that's the best way to put it. Quinn is rough, tough and makes no apologies for the way she is.

"She just didn't want to make your dad feel bad, is all," she retorts without missing a beat.

"Please, you couldn't find your way around any girl with a GPS, let alone my mom."

"At least a girl will let me try to find it. I ain't never seen any girl wanna be with a cold fish like you."

Our witty banter dies down as we entered the front doors made our way through the hallways. Quinn slips her designer sunglasses on and slings her arm around my shoulders, pulling me indecently close. Of course, at this point, some skateboarding freshmen has to whizz by whistling at us. And of course, Quinn has to flip the bird at them in retaliation, and get a "dyke" thrown at her for her efforts. I sigh. _So what else is new?_

"Well, here we go again." I breathe out, ignoring the losers and walking towards my locker instead. "One more semester of this hell, and then it'll all be over." I'm kidding. I actually kind of love high school. But it's not really on to admit it, and all that. I'm sure you know what I mean.

"Don't tell me you're going soft, Lopez." my ever-supportive friend snorts. Then, in a kinder tone: "No worries, I got your back."

"I know you want my back, Fabray. Everyone does." I reply. So I'm cocky, sue me. If you got it, flaunt it, right?

Before she can reply, the bell rings, signalling that we are late.

"Shit, Coach is gonna freak!" I yell, as we abandon our lockers and run through the hallways to get to homeroom on time.

oooooo

We end up being only 30 seconds late, but Coach Sue Sylvester still screams at us to "Go sit the fuck down, before I shove this pen up your collective asses!", as we arrive there, out of breath.

_Oh great, its one of her off-days._ You see, out of all the homeroom teachers, _we_ get the bipolar psychopath, who can either be the coolest teacher in the world or just a complete asshole, depending on her mood. Mostly, the complete asshole part wins out.

"So who tied _her _panties in a bunch?" I whisper, nodding at Coach Sue as we slide into our usual seats next to Rachel Berry and Tina Cohen-Chang.

Tina snickers at my joke. Rachel calls out a chirpy good morning to Quinn, who blushes and mumbles a 'Hi, Rachel' back, much to the detriment of the badgirl persona she always likes to keep up when in class.

I ignore the stares directed our way as the four of us exchange pleasantries. Yeah, I get it. Rachel Berry and Tina Cohen-Chang, much-slushied members of the most reviled club at school - Glee Club - being friends with the school dykes, whom even the football jocks mostly stayed away from? Kind of unusual, sure, but you'd think after three years, they'd be used to it. _But then, _I reflect privately to myself, _people at this school have damn short memories._

"So I heard some interesting news." Tina leans over to whisper to me, as Coach started taking attendance. I lean my my head towards her to show that I'm listening, keeping an eye on Coach just in case.

"You mean the new transfer student?" Quinn asks, as her and Rachel finish stuttering greetings to each other and join our conversation.

"You already know?" Tina asks Quinn. I don't know why she sounds so surprised. Quinn always has the latest gossip. However, the new transfer student was news to me, and quite interesting news at that.

"Why on earth is someone transferring in during the last semester of high school?" I ask.

Tina shrugs. "Probably had problems at her old school and got expelled or something. Got anything on her, Quinn?"

"Nothing much.", Quinn replies, "All I heard was that she's smokin' hot. Nothing else."

"Oooh. First-hand evidence?" I can't help but smirk at the thought of some cute fresh blood.

"Santana, that is a completely inappropriate question to ask, and Quinn, I am ashamed that you would be encouraging her!" Rachel scolds, sounding scandalized. Quinn looks sheepish at the reproach, but shakes her head anyways in reply.

"Nah, I got the news from Puckerman, who was asked to show her to her locker. He didn't tell me anything else."

I screw up my nose at the mention of Noah Puckerman, but Quinn goes on without noticing.

"Anyhow, we're bound to see her third period, because its phys. ed. and all the seniors gym together. Then we can decide if she really is up to our standards." She winks at me, then cringes when Rachel glares at her.

"Score!" I give Quinn a discreet high five, while Rachel rolls our eyes at our antics and goes back to chatting with Tina.

_Maybe this Monday morning might not turn out so terrible after all._

oooooo

TO BE CONTINUED

oooooo

**A/N: **So this was just a prologue to set the stage for the hot femmeslash-ey drama that is to follow. I've already got the second chapter drafted, just need to beta it and check over grammar, etc. In the meantime, review and tell me what you think about this one, eh?


	2. A Blast from the Past

**A/N: **Sorry for the late update, guys. Working on two stories at once has got me being slower than usual ^_^

Thank you so much to **Shine90**, **JackieL87** and **wkgreen** for reviewing. You guys are awesome and I would give you cookies, but since I can't, I'll just have to make do with updating this story instead :)

oooooo

**Chapter 1: A Blast from the Past**

oooooo**  
><strong>

Obviously, when I thought this day might not be terrible, it slipped my mind that second period is Civics and Careers. It has got to be the most mind-numbingly boring class in the history of education. It is also, unfortunately, mandatory. Which means that I have to sit through it if I want to graduate. Only the fact that we have a substitute today- Holly Holiday - who is a total babe, keeps me from just dying of boredom in this god-forsaken class.

So here I am, alternating my attention between staring out the window and perving over Ms. Holliday, when Mike Chang wanders into my line of vision, blocking my view of her magnificent assets. He is handing over a neatly stapled assignment. It even has a cover page and everything.

I snort. Only Mike would actually waste time finishing an extra credit assignment. I mean, this is McKinley High, for god's sake. Not Stanton, where they apparently do honors-level math at lunch, just for fun. I wish I was kidding about that.

You might have realized by now, I _do not_ like Chang. I think he represents everything wrong with the system, and he thinks the same way about me.

You see, most of us enter McKingley High straight from McKinley Junior High, so we have all pretty much known (and hated) each other our whole lives. Chang on the other hand, came in from a different junior high, and got all the girls swooning over his 'dashing good looks', enough to vote him in by a landslide to Presidency of the Student Council by the end of that year, with Tina as Vice-President.

The fact that he does a great job as President, doesn't exactly serve to endear me to him, because part of his job involves catching miscreant students (aka: Me and Quinn) and putting them in detention. Only the fact that Tina sticks up for our sorry asses, has prevented us from racking up enough detention hours to last us our entire high school career.

Thinking of Chang reminds me of Tina's news about that new transfer student.

_I wonder if she's really so hot as Puckerman says?_

oooooo_  
><em>

The unanimous vote on the answer to that question seems to be: yes.

"Well, from what we can see of her anyways." Quinn judges, idly tossing a birdie up and down as we wait for our turn on the court. "But damn, check that body out."

I have to agree. Tina had pointed Transfer-girl out to Quinn and me as soon as we came out of the changing rooms (fashionably late, as usual). She was at the other side of the gym, with her back to us. Tan skin, lo-ong legs, luscious blond hair flowing down her back_. And what a fine_ _back it is._ _Thank you, Jesus._

I couldn't help but frown, though, when I saw that reason we could only see her back, was because she was practicing Badminton swings against the gym wall with Rachel Berry.

"She gonna be turning around any time soon?" I wonder aloud. Not that I'm in any hurry to lose the view I have right now

"Not until Rachel lets go of her, I'm guessing." Quinn answers me, following my gaze and nodding at Berry.

I groan inwardly.

"Why don't you go over there and offer to practice with Berry or something?" I suggest, "Then we can get Transfer-girl free of her clutches."

Quinn frowns at me. "Come on, she's not all that..."

But I don't catch the rest of whatever she says, because Transfer-girl chooses that exact moment to pat Berry on the arm, and then smoothly take her leave of her.

She turns around. By chance, our eyes meet.

I freeze. _Those eyes. I'd know those eyes anywhere._

I can hear Quinn whistle from next to me, as she takes in the view. "Body _and _Beauty. God definitely pulled no punches on that one."

_She _is staring back at me, probably wondering who the weirdo staring open-mouthed at her is. I force myself to look away, and stare down at my navel instead.

"Oh, wait", Quinn sounds excited, "Santana, she's making her way over here!"

My heart is thudding, even as I keep my gaze resolutely trained on the floor. _NO. Oh hell no._

_"_No wait, she's just coming to get a drink, never mind." says Quinn, disappointed.

Hardly daring to breathe, I look up. But Quinn is right, _she_ had walked right past us to the water fountain, which is located barely 3 feet away. We both watch as she waits for her turn to take a drink, meanwhile amiably chatting to the boy next to her in line, who is gaping at her with his mouth open like a fish.

"Wait a minute." Quinn whispers. "Is she really new? She looks kind of familiar..."

_No shit, _I want to reply. But unfortunately, my mouth seems to have taken an extended leave of absence.

"No way." Quinn is finally getting there. "Isn't she ...that girl from back in middle school? The one with the same name as that crazy actress?"

I turn an ashen face to Quinn, trying to tell her to keep her voice down, but my vocal chords are ignoring my instructions right now.

"Lindsay Lohan, wasn't it?"

I finally find my voice.

"Brittany." I told Quinn exasperatedly. "It's Brittany, you moron."

Unfortunately, I must have said the name way too loud, because the girl who the name belonged to turned from chatting to the awestruck boy, and stared straight at me. Gracefully, she stepped out from the line at the fountain and walked over to where were were sitting, until she was standing right in front of us.

"Yes, that is my name." Brittany said, with a puzzled smile, "How can I help you?"

_Crap._

oooooo_  
><em>

"How can I help you?"

_You could start by getting out of my face, _badass Santana would have replied. But badass Santana seems to have gone AWOL, so I'm stuck gaping at her again.

Quinn looks from me to her, then back to me, and puts two and two together surprisingly fast. Interjecting herself into the conversation, she holds out her hand to Brittany.

"Quinn Fabray." she says. "We just seem to remember you from middle school."

The smile that suddenly lights up Brittany's face is just as blinding and endearing as Santana remembers.

"I know you!" she exclaimed. "You were in all my classes except for math."

"I'm that memorable huh?" Quinn asked flirtatiously, turning on the old Fabray charm.

"Well, you _were _the most popular girl in school." Brittany giggled.

"Not anymore." Quinn snorts, then rapidly changes the subject. ""So, why did you come back to Lima anyway? New York must have awesome!"

"New York is pretty nice," Brittany agrees seriously, "But it was too full of smart people for me."

I stifle a laugh. Quinn just blinks, unsure how to reply to that.

"I remember you from gym class in eighth grade." Brittany added shyly to me, as though she was afraid I might be feeling left out of the conversation. "You're Santana, aren't you? Santana Lopez."

I can feel my face burn up, but I just nod instead of answering. I remember eight grade all too well, to feel anything close to happy about her remembering it too.

"You were the one who was always getting kicked out for refusing to change." Brittany smiles. Quinn giggles.

"Not my fault!" I snap by reflex.

Brittany doesn't flinch at my tone, she just keeps smiling and staring at me, as if she finds me fascinating. Either that, or there's something on my face. I turn away from her hypnotizing stare, only to see Coach bearing down on us like a freight train.

"Lopez! Fabray! Unidentified blondie!" she barks, pointing to each of us in turn. "Why do I not see you out on the court sweating your bony asses off?"

"Sorry coach!" As one we all spring up and reach for our rackets. But as I hurry after Brittany and Quinn to the courts, I feel claws latch on to my shoulders, pulling me back.

"You both go ahead." Coach says, waving the other two away. "I need to have a talk with Lopez here."

I groan. I know exactly what's coming.

"Spare me the bleating, Lopez." Coach turns the evil eye on me. "Now have you considered my offer, or not?"

"Coach, I just don't have the time!" I protest. "Cross-country practice already takes up half my week. I just can't afford to spend time on cheerleading too."

"Listen to me, Lopez." Coach cuts in. "Here in Lima, you might be a MVP at the running shtick. But sooner or later, when you hit university, you're gonna bump into Usain Bolt and boom! There goes your running career." She mimes something bursting into flames.

"I think you mean Carmelita Jeter, not Usain Bolt." I interject weakly, "seeing as I'm female and all."

"Your point has absolutely no relevance to _my_ point, so you will shut up now." Sue replies, quite calmly. "Now, if you will join my cheerleading team - my _nationally ranked_ cheerleading team_, _as you will no doubt remember - you don't have to worry about that happening to you."

"But I have zero experience!" I say, try to wriggle away from her grip.

"Stuff the whining, Lopez!" Coach orders, "A pretty face and a well-toned body is all the experience needed."

For an instant, her voice softens. "It's also much easier to get a scholarship as a team member of a nationally ranked cheerleading team, Lopez, than the MVP of some smalltown cross-country team."

I fall silent, because _damn it,_ she has a point there.

"Now shove off!" Coach barks, turning gruff, "And if you are interested if having a future after high school besides being a dropout, I had better see you at practic tomorrow after school!" She leaves before I can refuse.

I roll my eyes, and walk instead toward where Quinn and Brittany are practicing against Rachel and Tina. Since they are already playing a game, I just stand on the sidelines watching them, when a voice interrupts my viewing experience.

"Lopez." I turn around to see who is addressing me now. _Oh, great._

"Chang." I can't help the unfriendliness in my tone.

"No need to look like that." Mike Chang rolled his eyes at me. "I just need to ask you a favour."

"Fuck off." I reply briefly, turning my attention back to the game.

"Oh, I think you'll like this favour." he says lightly. The fact that he takes no note of my abrasive tone only annoys me even more, so I don't answer him.

"Here's the thing." he continues. "As President, I'm supposed to be showing Brittany around to her classes. But I have a meeting with the council during third period that I can't get out."

"When you say meeting with the council," I interrupt. "Do you mean snogging with Tina in your office, or an actual meeting?"

"I meant a meeting!" he snaps, but his blush confirms my suspicions. "Just show Britt to third period Spanish would you?"

"Fine." I agree, inspecting my nails because that's how bored I am with the conversation. "I have calculus on the same floor anyways."

"Thanks, Lopez, you're a real pal!" He jabs me in the shoulder, grinning and dancing out of my reach when I reach over to break his arm.

"I'll cut you!" I growl, trying to catch him, but he twirls around me, before running back over to other side of the gymnasium, where Puckerman is yelling for him to come back, so that they can double against Sam Evans and Finn Hudson.

_Asshole. _I should just go back and tell him I won't do it. He can just go walk Brittany to her damn Spanish class himself. But I won't, because Tina is my friend and I don't want her missing out on a spectacular snog session, just because she has such bad taste in boyfriends.

And let me tell you, it has nothing at all to with that fact Brittany used to be my old crush back in middle school. Back when life was pretty much a bitch, and she was one of the few girls who didn't run away screaming from me, because _ewww lesbian!, _and _oh my ever-long God_, am I terrible at this self-denial thing or what?

oooooo

After gym, I get changed pretty quickly, so I wait in the hallway outside the changing room with Quinn, for Brittany to come out.

"So." Quinn starts, a smirk on her lips.

I groan inwardly, predicting the inquisition that is coming.

"Want to fill me in one why you were so tongue-tied over Transfer-hottie back there?" she asks.

"You know damn well why." I grumble.

Quinn snickers. "I don't believe it. Tough old Santana Lopez has a crushhhhhh." She draws out the last word for an irritatingly long time.

"You shut up right now or I blab all to Berry." I threaten desperately, but Quinn only grins wider.

"She isn't what you usually go for." she comments.

"So sue me." I say. "She was nice to me even back then when they were all ganging up on me, ok?" I can feel the old shame welling up inside as I say this, so I grow quiet.

Quinn's expression grows serious. Back then, she was the queen bee, and barely knew I even existed, so she had no clue what I went through.

We're both quiet for a while after that, idly listening to the sounds coming from the changing room. Then I feel Quinn put her arm around me, and crush me close to her. That gesture, more than anything, lets me loosen up.

"She used to be captain for every single game back then, because she was so damn good." I say quietly, staring at my hands. "If it wasn't for her picking me for her team every time, I would have been that kid standing alone in the field, because neither captain wanted me on their team."

"No wonder you fell for her." Quinn whispers, still holding me tight to her. "Not to mention, she's a hot piece of ass too."

I can't help but smile a little at that. Quinn always knows how to cheer me up.

"And," she continues, waggling her eyebrows at me, "looks like you've still got a thing for her."

I blush and push her away. "Oh please, it was just the surprise of seeing her again."

"Uh-huh." Quinn smirks. "Well, if you don't want her..."

"Don't even think about it." I interrupt. "Not unless you want my foot up your ass."

"That must be really uncomfortable." a voice says from behind us. We both whirl around to see Brittany standing behind us, fully changed and with that familiar puzzled expression on her face. _Damn it, she has got to stop sneaking up like that!_

"Brittany!" Quinn exclaims. She laughs nervously. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to see her threaten you." Brittany replies, pointing to me and then to Quinn by turn. "You shouldn't do that." she adds seriously, turning to me. "A foot in the ass can be really uncomfortable."

"Er-" I flounder, unsure what to say in response to such a characteristic Brittany observation. "I'm supposed to show you to Spanish." I finally say weakly.

Her smile returned. "Mike told me!" she replies happily, grabbing my left hand without further invitation.

Quinn's eyebrow lifts as she stared at our linked hands. "Well, I'll be off to English, then." she says casually, and walks past Brittany. She does, however, stop when she is safely out of Brittany's sight and stands there, making obscene kissy faces at me and then frantically pointing to Brittany.

"Stop it!" I'm yelling before I know it.

"Stop what?" Brittany looks confused again.

"Not you" I say, flustered. "Her!"

But, by the time Brittany turns to look in the direction I point, Quinn has of course vanished.

"Never mind." I resist the urge to sigh. "Here, just come this way so I can drop you off at Spanish."

I begin walking in the opposite direction towards the staircase to the third Brittany follows me, I'm intensely aware that she's still holding my hand. Already, I can see the whispers starting up along the hallway, can feel the stares on my back, of people who avoid my gaze as soon as I look at them. Brittany floats along oblivious to their silent disapproval, but if I'm any judge, they'll turn on her too soon enough, because they've already found out their tactics don't work on me.

Gently, but firmly, I try to disengage my hand from hers. To my surprise, she resists the effort, holding on tighter if anything.

"It's crowded." she explains, looking into my eyes innocently. "I might get lost."

I shrug, looking away. _Does this girl have no clue or what?_

"And besides," she continues. "If someone else has a problem with it, that's their issue to work out."

I miss a step, cautiously glancing at her out of the corner of my eyes, to see her smiling at me as brightly as ever. _Ok, maybe not as clueless as I thought._

Before I can respond, we reach the Spanish room.

"Here you go" I croak, throat suddenly dry. "Mr. Shue's a nice guy, he won't give you a hard time for being new or anything."

"Thanks" she smiles, letting go of my hand, but pauses before going in.

"What?" I ask, seeing as she's staring expectantly at me.

"Um," she fidgets, "Coach Sylvester told me cheerleader tryouts are tomorrow, but I don't where Gymnasium 3 is. Do you mind taking me there tomorrow?"

I frown. "But I'm not a cheerleader. I wouldn't know."

Her face falls.

"But Quinn is head of the team." I hasten to add. "I'll ask her to come take you."

Her face brightens slightly. "Thanks." she says quietly.

"No problem." I mumbled, feeling a sudden urge to study my shoes in great detail.

"Well, I have to go." she says looking back at the class, where a curious Mr. Schuester is staring at us, no doubt waiting for the new student to enter before taking attendance.

"All right." Just to be sure, I wait until she enters and is greeted by Mr. Schuester, before I leave.

As I walk away, I can still feel where she touched my hand, like it's burning or something. And I just _know_ that damn flush is creeping up my face again.

oooooo

TO BE CONTINUED

oooooo

**A/N: **Hope you guys liked this first chapter and that it wasn't too long or anything. Tell me what you think :)


End file.
